Message to a People in Chaos
Our Old Testament reading today is a familiar one. The first creation account in the Bible. We all know this text has been read and argued as a true account of how God created the world. But, to argue that point requires creative gymnastics around the text. No matter how you work it, this story does not add up to the scientific evidence of how God created the world. That is because the author of this text was not writing to explain how God created the world. He had a completely different agenda.
Our writer is addressing a people whose lives were in chaos. The Israelites were in Babylon, captives to a foreign power. Their lives had been uprooted. The nation of Judah and their city Jerusalem had been laid waste and they now lived in a foreign land, vassals to a greater power than themselves. It was a chaotic time of upheaval and change. The old ways did not seem valid anymore and in the chaos of their lives many questions were being asked. Was God too weak to protect them? Were the Babylonian Gods more powerful? Should they give up on their God and forget the covenant and convert to the Babylonian ways? It was in this chaos and questioning that this creation account was written.
While their lives were in chaos, this account assures the Israelites that God can and will make order out of chaos. (The opening line can be translated, “When God began to create.” Indicating that God continues to create.) This account tells them that since God created the heavens and the earth, the Babylonian gods were not real. Why would God create other gods? But the supreme message is that they were created in God’s image. That, they, the people of God, had a special place and task in the world. That task is to show by their lives who the true God is and what God has done for the world. They were called to have dominion over the world – to take care of it, shepherd it. The final message to a people in chaos was an assurance that God would give them rest from their struggles.
As we experience a changing and chaotic world we can be assured that out of the mess we seem to be in God will create a new thing. We are also reminded that we are not called to sit back and watch this new thing but are called to actively participate in the new creation. While others are looking to, “Get back to the way it used to be.” We are excited by the possibility of and are looking forward to the new that God is creating. A new world where all people will be treated equally as God has made us. A new world where we take care of creation, shepherding it and not exploiting it. A new world that is centered on love for God, for each other and for all of creation. A new world once again created by God and we get to participate in it as God’s people called, as Paul told the Corinthians, “to put all things into order, ...agree with one another, [and] live in peace.” Yes, in the chaos that surrounds us we are called to be the ones who proclaim God’s love, shepherd the world, and greet the world with the peace which passes all understanding and knowledge. The peace that is from God, creator of heaven and earth. The peace that surrounds us with God’s love.